Firefighter injured, man's foot severed after fire, explosion

Pair taken to UC Medical Center

Firefighters were battling a fire at a home on Mary Ingalls Highway in Melbourne when a gas tank exploded.

Bryon Fagin said his step-father’s work area caught fire around 6 a.m.

“It was the biggest explosion. I mean you felt it. I was standing 50 feet away and I felt it like I was standing next to it,” Fagin said.

The explosion sent shrapnel flying through the air. One piece cut his severed Fagin’s step-father’s leg.

“(My step-father) was around the corner of the house and I didn't see him until one of the firefighters yelled, ‘Man down!’ So I ran around the corner and it was him lying there and I actually didn't realize his foot was severed until he said, ‘My leg!’ I looked at his foot and I could tell immediately something was wrong,” Fagin said.

Firefighters have not said how the fire started.

“They're thinking it was an electrical box on the wall. Just old, old electrical wires,” Fagin said.

Both victims were taken to UC Medical Center. The firefighter was released Wednesday afternoon.

Crews closed Mary Ingalls Highway for a time between Eight Mile Road and Nine Mile Road.

The assistant fire chief said there are not a lot of fire hydrants in the rural area. They had to bring water in on firetrucks.

"What we had to do is put down a dump tank. We have tankers come up, to fill that dump tank just like a big swimming pool. And then we graft water out of that to the pumper, and pump that up to the engine on the top of the hill,” Assistant Fire Chief Gerald Tiemeier said.

Fagin said surgeons could not reattach his step-father’s foot but he is expected to be OK.